Environment, economics partly to blame

How ironic that Kelly Brownell, father of the “Twinkie tax,” would complain that the economics of food in America “hurts poor people” (“Environment, economics partly to blame,” Life, Oct. 9).
First, Brownell, director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, should know that the American Dietetic Association says there are no such things as “good” or “bad” foods. Too many french fries will probably kill you, but the same can be said of some “health foods.” Second, Brownell is on record supporting punitive taxes that would push certain foods out of people’s reach. Does he think underprivileged Americans would somehow be exempt from these taxes? The idea of saving poor people from themselves by increasing the cost of their food is insulting. The last thing lower- income folks need is another tax.

Today’s self-anointed “food police” seem to think that the way to encourage Americans to eat some foods is to artificially drive up the prices of others. There’s a name for this kind of hogwash: “Let them eat broccoli!”